Price of Justice: Work Release

Louisiana’s business and industry community says it’s supporting the efforts to reform the state’s criminal justice system.

“If we can get more people into that workforce somehow, devising those ways to move them from where they aren’t being productive to where they can be productive, it too is part of the big issue in terms of the budget,” Mike Olivier with the Committee of 100 says.

Listen

Listening...

/

2:00

What’s in it for business? Some cynics say “profits”. A 2016 Legislative Auditor’s report on work release programs states – quote – “participating businesses benefit from reduced labor costs” since they don’t have to provide health insurance or retirement benefits for inmates they employ. They also get a $2400 tax credit per inmate.

The report also shows those operating work release programs are benefitting financially. They get over $15 per day from the state for each working offender. Plus they’re allowed to take more than 60 percent of the worker’s wages for room and board.

There’s also what the programs charge inmates for snacks.

“When I hear of a honey bun costing $4, when I hear of a cold drink costing $5, it’s almost like the old country store.” Representative Terry Landry says, making reference to the Tennessee Ernie Ford song, “16 Tons”.

That report also states offenders in work release programs get their pay docked for child support, medical co-pays and prescriptions, and court-ordered restitution.

Landry says it’s no wonder nearly half of all work release program slots are unfilled, according to the audit report.

“A guy works, and he leaves after a day’s work, and he’s broke—what’s the incentive for a guy to be in a work release program?”

Judge Lori Landry of the 16th JDC in St. Martin Parish says, “From another perspective, those people that work and leave with nothing, that’s free labor.”

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the another factor contributing to Louisiana’s incarceration rate – the lack of adequate representation for those accused.

Related Content

How did Louisiana end up with the world’s highest incarceration rate? Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre says it grew out of the late 1980’s national political emphasis on “law and order.”

Listen

Listening...

/

2:00

“The prison population grew exponentially and it became, quite candidly, a cottage industry/prison industrial complex of housing people that were sentenced to jail,” Webre explains. “And the Louisiana legislature passed laws that the judges enforced.”

“It wasn’t easy, having to come back in society, with having to adjust myself to the real world after spending 35 years in prison.”

Reginald is in his 60s, and was sentenced to 121 years for armed robbery and attempted murder. Now, he’s out on parole, participating in an intensive reentry program through what’s known as a “day reporting center”.